Episode 355: Sarah Federman asks: Is it time for a ‘Corporate Reckoning’?

Today on the Take on Board podcast, Sarah Federman joins me to talk about “corporate reckoning,” which she defines as the process of finding a way back and healing massive, irreparable harm that organisations have caused in the past. I was keen to dive into how organisations, many of which in Australia have reckoning to do around issues like stolen land or people, can address their inherited legacies.

Sarah shared that the temptation is to defensively hand these issues over to legal or PR teams, instead this can make things worse. Instead, I learned that the whole board needs to be involved, acknowledging that they have inherited both the good and the bad from their predecessors. A great example is The Guardian, which set up a 10-year restorative plan after discovering its founding money came from slave owners.

We also discussed her powerful idea of having a literal or metaphorical “seat for the past” at the board table. This spot, which could be filled by a historian or descendant, allows the board to step back from present day concerns and consider their long-term legacy and how they will be remembered. Ultimately, the work is ongoing, hard, and should be restorative, not punitive, to strengthen the company’s integrity.